them by Spain, and remained loyal to the country for which they had fought, and had been ready to give their lives.

In the revulsion of feeling created by the sentiments thus boldly advocated by Wilkinson a resolution, offered by John Edwards and seconded by Thomas Turning point Marshall, was agreed to, which proved to be in the contest the turning point in the contest. The resolution provided

for the appointment of "a committee to draw up a decent and respectful address to the people of Virginia, for obtaining the independence of the District of Kentucky agreeable to the late resolutions and recommendations of Congress."

party

But even after this decisive indication of the loyal feeling of the convention had been given, other efforts were made by the opposite faction to carry their Further efforts object. Before the "decent and respectful" of the Court address was accepted, Wilkinson offered a resolution that a committee be appointed to draft an address to the good people of the District urging them to furnish the convention at its next session with instruction how to proceed in this important subject of an independent government.

This resolution was adopted, greatly to the fears of the party opposing illegal separation. Whereupon, Colonel Crockett, lately an officer of the Revolution Patriotism and a stanch adherent of the Union, left the triumphs convention and hastened to Fayette County. He returned in two days, having obtained the signatures of several hundred citizens who were opposed to an illegal separation. Wilkinson, who had given his promise to be guided by the will of his constituents, was obliged to submit. Patriotism carried the day. The address to the Virginia

Assembly was accepted, and the convention adjourned to meet again the following July.

Loyalty characteristic of Kentucky

This was the crisis in the life of Kentucky. It has been dwelt upon thus at length because no other event in her history so clearly reveals the character of the people. Let every one who studies this subject learn that in the midst of high excitement the Kentuckians acted deliberately and soberly; in the midst of strong temptations they acted wisely and patriotically. Let him also learn that in Kentucky every individual has weight. Although Wilkinson did not abandon his scheme to separate Kentucky from the United States, and although his friend, Sebastian, after this received a pension from Spain for his efforts in that work, yet there was no further danger that Kentucky would become disloyal to the Union.

yet attained

CHAPTER VIII

THE END OF THE STRUGGLE, 1788-1792

STILL the struggle for statehood was not ended. Nowhere was there any official opposition to Kentucky's beStatehood not coming an independent member of the Union, neither within the District, in the Virginia Assembly, nor in the Congress of the United States. And yet, by some strange enchantment, it seemed impossible to accomplish the desired end. The fruitless conventions have been compared to "the card edifices of children which are no sooner erected than, at a breath, they are destroyed."

No parallel occurs in history of such exasperating, needless delay in a worthy cause. The annals of history may be searched in vain, also, to find a parallel to the patience with which the high-spirited Kentuckians bore these trials, and to the loyalty which they cherished toward the government of their country. Kentucky's situation was isolated; but the deep excitement which prevailed in the District concerning the separation and the navigation of the Mississippi was known abroad.

British intrigue

In the autumn of 1788, Dr. John Connolly appeared in Kentucky. He was the same Connolly for whom, in 1773, lands had been surveyed at the Falls of the Ohio, where the city of Louisville now stands. He announced that he came to look after these lands, of which he had been deprived because he was a Tory. But in reality he was a British agent. His mission was to induce

Kentucky to withdraw from the Union and to throw herself upon the protection of Great Britain, who would assist her with troops, ammunition, etc., to take possession of New Orleans, and thus to force the navigation of the Mississippi from Spain by arms.

The fertile Kentucky country and the vast West connected with it were objects of desire to foreign kingdoms. Already it had been known to the people of the District that Great Britain stood ready with open arms to receive them. Connolly visited many prominent men in Louisville, and then went to Fayette County, where he held an interview with Colonel Thomas Marshall, a few days after the exciting seventh convention (November, 1788). But Marshall was strongly attached to the Federal government and a friend of Washington, the President elect of the United States. Dr. Connolly met with no encouragement, and the British intrigue came to an end.

Still other acts were to be passed by the Virginia legislature, and further conventions held in Kentucky, before the weary work of separation was over. The eighth other convenconvention, which assembled July 20, 1789, tions

objected to certain points in the third act of Virginia. A fourth act was then passed. To this, the ninth convention, assembled July 26, 1790, agreed, and fixed the Ist day of June, 1792, as the date when the separation should take place. This convention called for the election of delegates to a tenth convention.

Other acts regarding Kentucky were also passed by the Virginia legislature about this time. One sixth part of the surveyors' fees, formerly paid to William

Other acts of

Assembly

and Mary College (Virginia), were ordered to the Virginia be paid to Transylvania Seminary. Also the county of Woodford was established, the last of the nine